We work hard to advance the interior design profession, as well as the success of our members, at the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). To this end, we provide professional development and educational resources, as well as leadership opportunities. For many of our members, building networks is key. And as the design industry evolves, so does our commitment to meet the changing needs and values of our professional members.

During my first year at ASID, while conversing with our members and industry leaders, I heard a recurring theme—the beneficial role of interior design in our living and working environments. These discussions ranged from the work being done to design livable homes for veterans, to creating warm environments in children’s hospitals, and using design to aid an aging population and those with learning disabilities. As I hear more and more about the many inspiring projects our members are working on, it’s becoming clear that we, at ASID, need to create ways to recognize, foster, and communicate these myriad ways that design is improving lives and communities.

We’re starting to do this by adopting the goal of “advancing and communicating the impact of interior design in enhancing the human experience; ” as one of the pillars of our strategic plan — the roadmap that steers our mission. From this, several exciting programs have developed, such as our partnership with The 1% program, an effort that connects design firms with nonprofit organizations in need of design assistance and asks designers to commit one percent of their time to pro bono service.

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Children are destined to inherit the planet – but they already inhabit our cities. So how can we nurture and protect a child’s infinite capacity for play in the big city?

“Grasshopper Green”
Stick-let

In Philadelphia, Stick-lets industrial designer Christina Kazakia has discovered a way to “reconnect urban children to nature with play” combining a transportable, minimalist design with limitless configurations. Her new color silicone kit is currently on display at the Art Alliance on 18th St. in Philadelphia as part of the 2012 Philly Works exhibition.

“What was your favorite childhood memory?” she had initially asked some childhood friends at dinner. Most memories centered around the outdoors where risk taking, mischief, and pent up energy found release. “Nature is nurture,” believes Kazakia who grew up wandering the woods out back from her childhood home in New Jersey. As a professional designer in the making, she wondered how kids today could unplug and engage in the un-tethered play of imagination in nature that she was so fortunate to have experienced.

At The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Kazakia was asked by her thesis advisors how she could narrow her design focus. “I want to build a tool to build forts,” she quickly responded, launching into eight months of research, prototyping, and documentation that illuminated the “natural imagination” of children. Kazakia says designers too often skip the research, what the user is telling you. She credits critical fieldwork and her supportive classmates of diverse backgrounds for having spurred her pathway to a solution.

Kazakia observed kids at play in the city as they invented elaborate games with simple sticks. If only they had some kind of simple, versatile connector they could build something with those sticks—something that would spark a kind of wonder, a primal satisfaction, and sense of accomplishment.

Stick-let starter kit

At the Art Alliance show I couldn’t help noticing that Stick-lets bore an uncanny resemblance to bicycle chain components. When I asked it evoked laughter of recognition as Kazakia added, “Maybe I came up with this shape after exploring the release lock system on bikes as a potential mechanism for a stick connector (early prototyping phase).”

Bicycle chain diagram
Attribution: Marcus Roeder

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